


Knowledge Without Knowing

by Merfilly



Category: Elfquest
Genre: F/M, Introspection, Relationship(s), Slice of Life, Yuletide
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-12-05
Updated: 2014-12-05
Packaged: 2018-02-28 05:50:28
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,450
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/2721113
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Merfilly/pseuds/Merfilly
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Leetah and Cutter were wildly different. Despite Recognition, sometimes there needs to be an intermediary.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Knowledge Without Knowing

**Author's Note:**

  * For [plumeria47](https://archiveofourown.org/users/plumeria47/gifts).



> Set early after Leetah accepts Cutter as her lifemate in Sun Village.

It did not help Leetah's temper any at all to find that her most recent disagreement with Cutter had been observed, yet again, by Skywise. She glared at the star-watcher, expecting him to smile and walk away as he normally did, to go chase that flea-bitten cub of a Recognition-mate of hers! When he instead frowned, looked that way, then pushed out of the shade to come to her side, she had to let go of the tail of her anger, for this was a new reaction.

She did not wish to be like Rayek, in his pride, rejecting all that had come with the Wolfriders, for she could see the benefit of much of what they had already learned from them.

"He's prickly like one of those burrs your wolves keep finding in the sand today," Leetah offered, to see if Skywise wanted to argue with her, or offer an excuse for Cutter's behavior.

"He's worried about something," Skywise told her. "But that doesn't mean he should be arguing with you so much. Do you want me to go see if I can get him to talk? He's bad about shutting his mouth and forgetting to open it again."

Leetah felt that spark of her temper for his presumption that he could talk to Cutter where she had failed, but the inner voice she tried to listen to suggested a different path. After all, Skywise was Cutter's closest confidante.

"Maybe there is a better way you can help me, Skywise. I know you are his friend and advisor, so I will not ask you to talk out of confidence, but you know him best. Can you tell me the things I would know, would understand better about him, if I had lived among you in your… Holt?" she asked, stumbling over the word she heard them use for their lost homeland.

Skywise considered that for a long moment, then nodded, yet Leetah had a sneaking suspicion it had already been on his mind to do so. "Let's go sit in the shade before I turn red?" he offered, and she agreed, walking with him to one of the large, broad-leafed trees. Once they were settled comfortably, with Skywise lounged back on his elbows and Leetah sitting cross-legged, he spoke again. "I think, to start understanding Cutter, you have to know his parents. Joyleaf and Bearclaw, who was chieftain before Cutter, though she led as much as he. More, sometimes."

"More?" Leetah wondered at that aloud, because Cutter did not seem to give the leadership of his people to anyone else, though he listened to all.

"Bearclaw was a wild, trouble-making, thrill-seeking elf," Skywise began. "He was often irritating the Tall Ones, or seeking out the hidden secrets of the Trolls. Because of his father, Mantricker, we had plenty of problems already with the Tall Ones. Yet it wasn't enough, or maybe Bearclaw was angry over them killing his father, because he was often baiting them into hostility. Joyleaf, though, was more cautious and would keep him from leading us too dangerously." Skywise paused, then continued. "I often didn't understand why she held him back; I hated them and wanted them gone from our territory, but now I can see she was wise."

"Because of what happened to your Holt?" Leetah asked gently.

"Yes." Skywise took a deep breath. "Cutter has all of her patience and ability to see what will happen because of things we do, but all of Bearclaw's passion and fire to protect the tribe."

Leetah nodded. "I think I can see that. He has much more caution than some of your younger tribemates, I think."

Skywise had to chuckle at that. "Maybe. He's known all his life he would lead. Bearclaw and Joyleaf were together a very long time before Recognition, and the Tall Ones were pressing in on our space all of those seasons. Mantricker had been killed while Bearclaw wasn't that old. Joyleaf knew Cutter needed to learn the Way, and to learn how to think outside of it when needed, in case it should happen again."

"What is the Way?" Leetah asked, having heard it mentioned, knowing it was often brought up as why some of the Wolfriders resisted learning things as the Sun Village people did them. She was surprised to see Skywise's nose crinkle and his face furrow as he had to think on that.

"How to explain something a Wolfrider knows from birth…" he mused. "Custom? That is one word. But more. It is the way of life. Do not hunt out of cruelty. Do not take more than is needed. Give to the tribe. Let the wolves take their friends when it is time. All of these things and many more. It governs us, and our elder members take it so literally that every new thing we run into stresses them in their souls," Skywise explained. "I don't think it was ever meant to be so rigid, though. Treestump may be the most flexible of the older members in that sense."

That made Leetah look around her home, thinking about her people and how challenged they had been by the Wolfriders' advent to their lives. "We do not have a word for it, but I think I understand. Because I see the way my people do not always understand yours and their ways. I think this has led to conflict that is unnecessary."

"You mean like Rayek?" Skywise prodded, not meanly, but out of true curiosity. 

"Some." She shook her head. "Cutter. We are talking about Cutter, and helping me to understand him."

The white-haired elf nodded, and closed his eyes, thinking about his friend. _Tam_. Skywise had known Cutter longer than the chieftain had known himself, really. What did it have to be like for Leetah to have all of that knowing that came with Recognition, but none of the background?

"He's pretty clear-headed, most of the time. He can be headstrong and stubborn, but that's most of us. He's only ever had the one wolf-friend so far. We've had a lot of losses in his life, and he feels each one strongly, even though that's not the Way, to hold grief. It's not even that he holds the grief; they just make him more aware of his actions." Skywise then shook his head. "That's not going to really tell you more than you've learned, listening to our Howls, to the others talk about him though." He sat fully up, meeting her eyes and reached out. *Leetah.*

The send was solid, stronger than she had expected, yet Leetah let down her guards to accept it. Sending was truth and more than words could hold, normally. Skywise steeled himself, selecting the memories that showed all of Cutter, best and worst, that he had seen that weren't too personal, and let them flow in multi-layered sends. He showed her the youthful adventures that had ended well to the ones that had ended poorly. Then he went on to their growing pains, especially that awful encounter with Mad-Coil that had cost their tribe, and annealed Cutter into the kind of chieftain that could lead them when the Tall Ones attacked. Skywise showed her the elf at rest, at play, at hunt, and at leading, giving her the flavor of what Cutter truly was.

Leetah took it in, seeing her lifemate from outside his own thoughts of himself. Skywise was both biased and critical in the way only a true friend could be, letting Leetah experience those loving memories, even when the best friends had disagreed. When it tapered off, Leetah found that she had taken Skywise's hands during the sharing, and her eyes were wet from the many emotions the pair had shared.

*He is the sum of all this and more,* she sent back.

*With more to come, for we both know change is coming, even if the Way tries to deny it.* Skywise's send ended then, the walls back up, and she gave him a small smile.

"He is lucky to have you at his side."

The white-haired elf shrugged. "I think I'm the lucky one, to have him to follow."

Leetah gave a dry laugh at that. "You would see it so, and he would see it my way, I think. He is but a child compared to me, yet there has been far more in his short life than I have ever known. That is something I need to hold close, when I grow impatient with him."

"A good idea," he agreed, before letting the conversation die away. Cutter would come home soon, and the pair would be more whole for this. In that, Skywise was certain.


End file.
